lathe alignment help

Hi all i have recently bought a warco gh1322 lathe, i have never used a lathe before so its all new to me i have converted it from three phase to single using a vfd i have the lathe up and running now with help from members on another forum.

My next step is making sure the lathe is running accurate, i have turned a piece of bar and this is what i got;

Measured with a caliper

110mm bar length
20.04mm start (chuck end)
20.33mm end

0.29mm over 110mm

Dial indicator
0 to 0.28/9mm

So they both are reading the same????

To fix this should i adjust the head with the two adjusters until it runs close to 0??

Im not sure if this helps but i have run the dial indicator over the face of the chuck and this indicates that its not running true, not sure if you can take a reading from this.

When i check the spindle collar itself the bit i clamp the chuck onto it runs practically at 0 on the front and the side when spinning by hand. but the face of the chuck runs of slightly could this cause the run off on the test bar or do i just need to adjust the head slightly.

Im self learning so any help would be great
Thanks

Did you turn the bar with the end free hanging? And I'm not clear on your statement about the diameters and the indicator. Are you saying the machine cut a taper of 0.29mm and when you ran an indicator on the bar it went from 0 at the small end to +0.28/0.29mm at the big end? This indicates that you have at least some deflection or tailstock misalignment. However, the indicator should read half of the diameter difference, not the entire diameter difference.

To turn a test piece, it's often best to use a fairly large diameter and short length:diameter - maybe for your machine around 3" or so and let's say 8" long (6" turned length, 2" chucked length) piece of tubing for the test subject. This will help eliminate sag and deflection. Ensure that your tool is sharp and doesn't have a large nose radius also. You want minimal tool pressure. Your current set-up is like a wet noodle in comparison with almost 6:1 stickout ratio.

Regardless, DO NOT adjust or change anything until you have good information on which to base your adjustments. Otherwise you are just chasing your tail.

Hi Yeah the bar was free hanging 50mm in the chuck 100mm out i was cutting straight to check if the head was parallel to the ways after doing a few passes these are the reading that i got hope i have explained it correctly

Please, please search the archives for lathe alignment advice. Lathes are NOT plug 'n play. They have to be installed correctly and aligned. Make no adjustments until you know what you have.